Caps @ Sharks 12-30-2009 Post-Mortem

Disappointing to say the least... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Last year A.O. did most of his goal scoring in the third period, this year it has been the first period. Tonight he scored a semi-meaningless goal in the third to take over the goal scoring race in the NHL. However for the first time since returning from his absurd suspension, he was mixing it up physically all over the ice. Douglas Murray started to stray over the line towards the end of the game, but he woke A.O. up and while the Sharks got away with it tonight, the rest of the league may not be so lucky.

THE BAD:

For a team with so much skill, why are the Caps so bad skating 4-on-4? No shots on goal tonight and two allowed with the extra ice.

While the Power Play got the offense going in the second period, they went 0 for 4 and the squandered opportunities allowed the Sharks to pull away.

For the second game in a row, the Caps get only a few shots on goal in the first period. Tonight is was only 3 shots. For a team that has been living off of fast starts all season long, you're not going to get out to a good start with that.

THE UGLY:

Any thoughts of a goaltender controversy ended tonight with Michal "Bebe" Neuvirth looking like the rookie that he is, especially so on the two penalty shots where he didn't even come close to making a save. The frustrating part was the nice saves he made in the first period to keep the game close. Such is the life of rookies goaltenders in the NHL.

We're wondering folks, Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green make the Canadian Olympic squad??? Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin barely talked about today's announcement of the Canadian roster so we're not sure if he made the team or not...

Well folks, you could kind of see this coming. After the lackluster performance on Monday night, cross-country trip, and a fired up opponent playing in a building that the Caps haven't won in since 1993, this game could have been much worse. Hades, last year it was 7-2 and could have been that ugly again tonight. This was looking like the Edmonton game from a couple of weeks ago only the Sharks aren't as bad as the Oilers. Chalk this one up to the Caps getting outclassed by a good team because that is exactly what happened.

Tonight the Caps head back out West for a quick two game road trip to close out 2009 and ring in 2010 when they make a stop in San Jose to face the Sharks. The Caps and Sharks have already met once this season and it led to a 4-1 win for the Caps in the Phone Booth back in October. Where the Caps are one of the teams fighting for supremacy in the East, the Sharks are one of the teams fighting for supremacy out West. San Jose has been red hot of late and are currently on a 5 game winning streak. Their most recent win came on Monday night when they beat the Phoenix Coyotes at home 3-2 in a gimmick.

Back in October, the Caps snapped an 11 game, 10 year overall losing streak to the San Jose Sharks, tonight they'll seek their first win in 9 games and 16 years in San Jose. The question for us though, what is the mental state of the team? Whether or not it was the trade, the Caps were clearly thrown off their game by something on Monday night. Throw in the uncertainty in goal now, does Bruce Boudreau go with Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore or Michal "Bebe" Neuvirth, and you've got a delicate situation to handle tonight wondering which way this team is going to go. One thing going in the Caps' favor is that when the Caps feel as though they have something to prove, they usually turn in a good performance. The bad news is that streaks aside, the Sharks are no slouches on home ice. The Sharks have only lost twice in regulation, the fewest in the NHL, and just 7 times overall in just 18 games at home this season. So it looks as if the Caps are going to have to work overtime to pull out two points tonight. But San Jose wasn't happy with their performance in D.C. back in October. They should be looking for a measure of revenge tonight as they get a rare chance to prove themselves against one of the top teams in the East.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 2
Sharks 4
Winner by Thornton(19-20 on the season with one perfect game)

Well whatever it was; the trade, the upcoming road trip, playing the Hurricanes, or getting caught up in their press clippings; the Caps just didn't have a great performance last night. While the defense overall stunk, they did kill off 1:56 of a 2:00 5-on-3 which is pretty impressive no matter what. However, it was a good thing that General Manager George McPhee held his press conference before the game because if it had been after the game, we would have wanted to know why John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles wasn't the surplus defenseman being moved. The Coach's Pet was -2 only because he stepped onto the ice right as Eric Fehr's shot was being put into the net by Carolina. Otherwise he would have been a well deserved -3 because he was out of position and spectating on three Carolina goals. Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore had a much better game than the fans will ever give him credit for. He only started to struggle and fight the puck after giving up the fourth goal, none of which were his fault. He simply had no defense in front of him last night. Though Theodore wasn't alone in trying to get the team back on track all by himself. Once the Caps fell behind 3-0, they snapped out of the funk but got away from their system, rushed everything they did, and tried to do things individually (sound familiar?). If Carolina was not such a bad hockey team right now, the Caps wouldn't have gotten as close as they did but Carolina was good enough to make sure that the Caps couldn't come all the way back. Finally, while some of the nattering nabobs of negativism will harp on this game for weeks and months to come, it is just one game. Throw it away and come back on Wednesday night against San Jose with a much better overall effort and go from there.

Monday, December 28, 2009

No Post-Mortem Tonight

First of all, we're not really sure this game deserves a full-fledged post-mortem. But we're rather run down after three games in three days (we went to the Redskins-Cowgirls game last night for those of you who couldn't figure it out) so we're heading off to bed early tonight.

Tonight the Caps finish off their three game homestand when they face the Carolina Hurricanes for the third time this season. Both meetings so far this season have been a little too close for comfort (and have left Canes' defenseman Tim Gleason hurting) but the Caps have still come out on top both times. The Canes have continued to struggle to amass points in the standings this season. They've lost four of their last five games but were able to pick up a Bettman point on Saturday night when they lost to Philadelphia in a gimmick 4-3 after falling behind 3-0.

As noted earlier, the two previous matchups between these two teams were a little too close for comfort. Some have used the close calls as proof that the Caps really aren't an elite team. After all how good could the Caps really be if they can't bury a team like Carolina? Nevermind that Carolina is a divisional opponent. The Caps 8-0 record against the Southeast is to be expected and is just mere padding of their record. Nevermind that while the Canes have the worst record in the NHL, they don't want to get embarrassed by one of the top teams in the league. After all, we all know that fear does little more than make you curl up into the fetal position and take whatever lumps you have coming your way. But tonight we can expect the Caps to look past the Canes a little bit. After this game tonight, the Caps head out West for games against San Jose and Los Angeles, teams currently ranked 4th and 9th in the overall standings as opposed to 30th. Plus after playing two fellow division leaders on home ice, the Caps now have the NHL's bottom feeder to contend with. However, Carolina still gives up the most goals per game in the NHL and scores the fewest goals per game in the NHL, so even if the Caps are looking ahead to their California trip and wondering who among them will or will not make the various Olympic teams, they shouldn't need much to win this game tonight.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 5
Canes 2
Winner by Laich(19-19 on the season with one perfect game)

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Sunday Smorgasbord 12-27

Good times at the Caps Fan Club Meeting last night before the Caps-Devils game. The featured guests were Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin who shared, among other things, their ideas of what the Caps need if they're to make themselves a true Stanley Cup Champion this year. Of course on the list was the lockdown defenseman which just about every team in the league covets right now. We had to chuckle as to how quickly they shot down the idea of Brendan Witt returning (please, not him) but were flabbergasted at the idea that Anaheim would trade Scott Niedermayer and take Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore off our hands. How quickly have we forgotten the asking price from Anaheim for Chris Pronger. Why would Niedermayer be any cheaper than Pronger was unless we somehow became the New Jersey Devils? Secondly, just who would take Theodore off our hands? We'd probably have to throw in at least a second round pick to make that deal happen. Finally, while some fans may be, we're willing to go on the record and say were not comfortable with the idea of riding Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov and Michal "Bebe" Neuvirth into and through the playoffs at this point in time. Neither one has shown us that they can carry an NHL team through the pressure cooker of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

We would be remiss though without talking about the Monday Night Massacre that the Redskins suffered at the hands of the Jints last week… One of these days you’ll listen to us when we tell you not to get too excited about the “improved play.” One glaring sign that ugly beatdown was coming actually occurred in the Oakland game the week before when Jason Campbell was getting knocked around like a piñata at a children’s birthday party despite the Redskins running up over 30 points on the Raiders. But we knew the offense and the pass protection was bad, what really got exposed was the much ballyhooed defense that just couldn’t stop the Jints. As we noted, it is time for a total housecleaning and rebuilding of the team, which the uncapped year puts the Redskins in unique position to actually do.

But getting all of the attention from last week's game is the “fake” field goal that Jim Zorn ran at the end of the first half. First of all, we know that play, we ran that play way back when in our youth football days. Hunter Smith goofed up by trying to heave the ball downfield when he should have swung it to the stack on the left for an absurdedly large screen play. Secondly, while Jim Zorn is getting ripped seven ways from Sunday for running the play, even after the Jints called timeout, this is the “gambler Jim” everybody fell in love with last year when Zorn got out to the 6-2 start. Finally, don’t listen to the people who were claiming “the Redskins could have used the three points.” The game was over when the Redskins went three and out on their first possession already down 7-0. Even if the trick play at the end of the half had worked; the best possible scenario would have been another touchdown drive to start the second half to get the deficit to 24-14 but the Redskins would have had to give the ball back to the Jints at some point and the defense would have once again been unable to get off the field.

We will say this though, if nothing else we hope that Dan Snyder refuses to change the team name so that we continue to hear about the “embarrassing,” “racist” and “degrading” moniker from these Liberal journalists who continue to insult our intelligence while insisting that they have no biases. They seem to be more worked up by the name than anybody else. Because remember folks, the simple generic nickname “Tribe” is also out of bounds as is the William and Mary logo of a W and M adorned with a simple feather. These people so badly trip over their own PC that they had a hard time properly describing various achievements such as Vonneta Davis. She was the first black person to win a Gold Medal at the Winter Olympics but the PC crowd tripped all over themselves in 2006 saying stupid things like “She’s the first African-American from any country to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.” Really? They have African-Americans in France? Italy? Russia? China too? Or wouldn’t they be African-Frenchpersuns, African-Italians… (Yeah, this counts as our Diversify or Die Moment…)

And transitioning away from the Redskins of the NFL to the Redskins of the NHL, how badly have things blown up in Philadelphia? Whew, we didn’t think that adding Chris Pronger would get the Flyers over the top but we also didn’t think they would implode like this. A few weeks ago they botched the firing of their Head Coach, replacing John Stevens with Peter Laviolette, and things have gone from bad to worse. Before the salary cap, the Flyers could get away with constantly adding high priced vets and remain competitive but not for much longer now that they’re getting saddled with the long term contracts of Pronger, that scumbag Dani Briere and Mike Richards. There isn’t much Paul Homgren can do now to get things on track either because the team is up against the salary cap. We wonder how many people are still pointing to the Flyers as proof that you can continue improve your team in a salary cap system as if there is no salary cap.

Well the revolving door on South Capitol Street continued as this week the Natinals added Matt Capps leading to all kinds of semi-confusing Capps and Nats agree to deal. We thought Tony Plush would be getting a spin on the fourth line when we first saw that. As we've mentioned before, when you lose 103 games, changes have to be made and what more are in store for the Natinals remain to be seen.

This week, the Redskins season comes to a merciful end when they visit San Diego next week to play the Chargers. The Caps host the Canes tomorrow night before heading back out west for games against San Jose on Wednesday and Los Angeles on Saturday. The Terp Men host the politically incorrect William and Mary Tribe on Wednesday night before paying a visit to UNC Greensboro on Sunday. The Terp Women have the Terrapin Classic this week, facing UNC Wilmington on Tuesday night and hosting St. Joseph's in a regular non-conference game on Sunday.

As always, please send all comments, criticisms, questions, suggestions, corrections, and returned Christmas gifts to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Caps vs. Devils 12-26-2009 Post-Mortem

Finally broke through the second level... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

The top line was tops again, a combined 7 points and +9 for Alexander "Slappy" Semin, A.O., and Nicklas Backstrom. A.O. is now one goal behind Marion Gaborik for he league lead, six points behind Joe Thornton (who is currently playing a game) for the Art Ross race, and for the "he doesn't play defense" folks, he leads the NHL with a +21. A.O. is also now 7 points behind St. Calle Johansson for 7th on the Caps All-Time Scoring List.

And let's not forget Nick for registering his 202nd career point tonight in his 202nd career game. He has yet to miss a game and his goal in the second period was a huge boost the Caps.

We believe the call from Steve Buckhantz is "DAGGER!" when a shot seals a game. Well Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green threw the "DAGGER!" tonight with his goal early in the third period. Any ideas that the Devils had in coming back were dashed by that goal and he also registered a +2.

Michal "Bebe" Neuvirth is starting to look a little more comfortable at the NHL level. He didn't look too good on the goal he gave up but instead of getting rattled as he did on Wednesday night, he bounced back strong as that was the only goal he gave up.

New Jersey isn't known for having a great Power Play, but they are 8th in the NHL. Tonight the Devils however went 0 for 4 and one Power Play, were totally on their heels on some occasions. The Caps registered 5 shots on goal shorthanded and allowed 5 shots on goal to the Devils Power Play.

THE BAD:

The Caps only got two Power Plays and they overlapped for a 1 minute 5-on-3. Yet the Caps wasted the chance by trying the same freaking play three times in a row. How about doing something different guys?

THE UGLY:

Yeah, Bebe should have had the one goal he allowed but he wasn't helped by a great screen set by John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles. That was his Bonehead Play of the Game.

Well folks, enjoy sitting at the top for the time being because the lead is one point but the Devils still have two games in hand. Make no mistake, were better off in this position than being 3 points down with Joisey having two games in hand, but the point is, we still need help. Tonight's win will make things more interesting down the stretch. We like that after building a 2-0 lead on New Jersey we were able to get that third goal on Martin Brodeur who had an off night. We'll take a couple of deflections off of New Jersey sticks to get this win.

Tonight, the Caps wrap up their first season series when they face the New Jersey Devils in the second game of their three game homestand. The Caps have yet to beat New Jersey this season, though when the Devils visited the Phone Booth in October, the Caps were able to squeeze out a Bettman point when they lost in a gimmick. The Devils have been rolling along all season and are currently on a league best 5 game winning streak. Luckily for the Caps, Martin Brouder finally got around to breaking Terry Sawchuk's shutout record in the Devils last game, a 4-0 blanking of the Penguin Scum in Pittsburgh on Monday night.

With the mid-point of the season fast approaching, the Caps can start to take a look at where they are in the overall standings and they're in good position to make a run for the franchise's first ever President's Trophy. However, if the Caps have any ideas on winning it this season, they need to beat New Jersey at home tonight. The Caps currently trail the Devils by a single point in the standings but New Jersey has two games in hand. Should the Caps lose tonight, they would need all kinds of help to catch New Jersey and secure the #1 overall seed in the playoffs. Just like Wednesday night, a fast start against a grinding Devils team is key. The Caps have yet to score more than 2 goals in a game against the Devils this season which will have to change if we want to win this game tonight. While some are making hay out of the fact that A.O. missed the last two meetings between these teams, the Caps have not won a season series against the Devils since 1999-2000, well predating even the Jaromir Jagr era.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 2
Devils 3
Winner by Zajac(19-18 on the season with one perfect game)

Thursday, December 24, 2009

George Michael 1939-2009

The old Italians in our family always told us that "these things come in threes." One month ago we lost Abe Pollin. Today, we lost another longtime sports institution in Washington, D.C., George Michael.

Like many people we had some fun here at George Michael's expense from time to time. He was an easy target because of his larger than life persona and national recognition before the advent of cable television. George was about the only reason youngsters such as ourselves would bother watching the local news on a nightly basis growing up. He was great at making the sports highlights from the night before interesting and while his voice may have gone up a few decibels, he never had to resort to catchy phrases or other schlock to get them over. While ESPN and Sportscenter got on the air one year before the George Michael Sports Machine did; it is safe to say the Sports Machine was Sportscenter before Sportscenter was.

But what endeared George Michael to people such as ourselves was his willingness to show the highlights of and promote what some considered to be the "lesser" or "fringe" sports. George was especially famous for showing WWF/WWE/Professional Wrestling along with Rodeo and NASCAR highlights on his shows. But he also found time to include hockey. George was a big fan of the sport and the Washington Capitals and he would always promote the team back during the glory days of the mid-1980's when the Caps had one of the best teams in the NHL. He learned the sport during his stop in Philadelphia when the Flyers were winning their Stanley Cups and as a color commentator for the New York Islanders before coming to Channel 4 in Washington, D.C.

However, the thing that most stands out the most to us about George Michael was how genuine he was. You knew his relationship with Jim Vance was very close and that he loved what he was doing. He freely admitted that he was a tough person to work for but when budget cuts were forced upon him, he stuck his own neck out first and stepped down rather than see his staff waste away. You rarely if ever see people in the entertainment industry do those kinds of things.

While George Michael was one of the people downplaying the Caps' chances of making the playoffs late in the 2008 season, we happen to think that he wasn't very far off base. After all, it took some time before we came to believe in this team ourselves. We also happen to think that it is a shame that he won't be around anymore as the Caps head onto to winning their first Stanley Cup. You could say that his retirement was marred by his battle with cancer but Michael never announced that he was in that fight and did his best to keep active in and relevant on the D.C. sports scene. He was still shopping around his Redskins Report and Full Court Press shows in spite of the fact that he was insisting on "doing it right" which meant high production costs in an era of declining production budgets.

Old timers often say, "they don't make 'em like they used to" and it certainly applies to a man like George Michael because they really don't make 'em like George anymore.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Caps vs. Buffaslugs 12-23-2009 Post-Mortem

We may have to rethink some things here... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Brendan Morrrissonn finally breaks his slump and atoned a bit for missing two wide open nets against Ryan Miller two weeks ago by finally getting the puck over an outstretched Miller. It turned out to be the game winner too.

And the other third of the top line, A.O. with a goal and two assists tonight, giving him 44 points on the season, 464 in his career, 10 points behind St. Calle Johansson for 7th on the Caps All-Time Scoring list, 7 goals away from 250 in his career.

Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green with a goal and an assist but also a team high +2 on the night. As loyal and patriotic Americans, we hope he's left off of Team Canada.

The Power Play finally got a chance and even a 51 second 5-on-3 Power Play and converted both Power Plays on only 2 shots. It doesn't get much better than that.

Despite the Whats? playing their heated rivals from Harvard in front of a raucous 7,613 at noon today, the ice didn't look too terribly bad. We have two more of the Basketball-Hockey Doubleheaders to contend with.

THE BAD:

Slappy getting cross-checked in the head after getting knocked down in the crease with no call being made. Paul Devorski was one of the refs on Thanksgiving Eve when the Caps did not a single Power Play and for most of tonight, it looked as if history was going to repeat itself.

After allowing just 4 shots on goal in the first period, the Caps gave up 20 in the second period alone.

THE UGLY:

Well the sequence that led to the Buffaslugs first goal has us really scratching our heads. First there was Mike Knuble cherry knicking coming out of the penalty box. Then there was Brooks "and Dunn" Laich trying to lob him a pass from deep in his own zone which misfired. After the misfire, Knuble just went to the bench and didn't try to get back into a play that was heading back into the Caps zone. Then Tom Poti misplayed the resulting 2-on-1 allowing the cross-ice pass to get through. In spite of all of that, Michal "Bebe" Neuvirth was square to Paul Gaustad when he shot but still let the shot get through him and into the goal. We don't know exactly who to the blame but that whole thing is the John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles Bonehead Play of the Game.

Well folks, so much for jet lag and being caught up in the holiday season, 15 shots on goal in the first period alone put that notion to rest. But what we like the most was that the Caps once again got out to an early lead and didn't have to struggle to close out the game. This is a good sign because it shows us that the team is finally starting to mature. Too many times we've the Caps score a quick goal at the start of the game and lose control of it but twice now, we've gotten the early goals and cruised to a win. And another note on Neuvirth tonight, he seemed relatively solid until he gave up the first goal when he then seemed to lose him composure a bit. He's still very much a rookie and he still needs work but it was good to see the team rally around him and stake him out to a three goal lead in the third period because that allowed him to relax again. The Caps now head into the Christmas Break in an outstanding position and have started this lighter stretch of the schedule on the right note. Saturday night will be another good test for this team.

Tonight, the Caps kickoff a three game homestand (that's right, the Caps are allowed to play games at home) when they host the Buffaslugs for the second and final time this season. This will be the third meeting overall between the two teams with the home team pitching a shutout in the two previous matchups. Tonight's game will end a run where the two teams met every other Wednesday night as two weeks ago, the Caps were shut out 3-0 in Loserville...er...Buffalo. Since then, the Buffaslugs have been very busy, cramming seven games in those 13 days. The Buffaslugs won five of those games but are 2-2 in their last four including Monday night's 3-2 Overtime win in Toronto over the Thug Leafs.

Well folks, we've seen this story before haven't we? In the last game before a holiday break, the Caps are hosting the Buffaslugs so we wonder which officiating crew itching to get home for the holidays are assigned to breeze through tonight's game. The big key we see for the Caps tonight is to get a goal early on Ryan Miller. After being shutout in the previous game, the longer the Caps allow him to keep them off the scoreboard, the harder it will become for the Caps to score on him. Luckily for the Caps they've had a few days off since the end of their West Coast trip but don't be too surprised if they come out a bit sluggish at the start of tonight's game as East Coast teams usually do in their first home game after a West Coast trip. Add in our historical troubles against the Buffaslugs and this could very well continue our win-lose run which we've been doing over the past seven games.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 1
Buffaslugs 3
Winner by Vanek(19-17 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Oilers 12-19-2009 Post-Mortem

Who says you can't play just 20 minutes and win in the NHL??? Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Michal "Bebe" Neuvirth with a very good game tonight. He made 26 saves tonight and looked much more comfortable in goal than he did one week ago. The two goals he allowed tonight were not his fault.

42 shots on goal, 18 of them in the third period alone, as the Caps got rubber at Jeff Deslauriers and made him earn his paycheck tonight which is what they needed to do.

Oh, and there's that A.O. guy, igniting the comeback with two goals to tie the game up and then an assist to help put the game away. Just another night at the office for him.

THE BAD:

Everybody's favorite whipping boy, Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz with an ugly turnover and even uglier effort to recover, leading to Edmonton's first goal.

Mark our words folks, Brendan Morrrissonn is going to botch a prime scoring chance in the playoffs that will kill us. This is going beyond a slump.

THE UGLY:

The Power Play slump continues. 0 for 4 yet again and only 3 shots on goal with a 1:51 5-on-3 advantage that yielded just one shot on goal. Now grant you, there were plenty of blocked shots by Edmonton and the Caps applied great pressure on that 2 man advantage, but the results remain the same.

As good as they were in the third period, the first line of A.O., Nicklas Backstrom, and Alexander "Slappy" Semin were downright awful in the first two periods. The second goal was caused by A.O. and Slappy blowing the defensive zone before the puck left (and as a matter of fact, nobody was in position to push the puck up to them, making their play all the more mind boggling. That's why it is tonight's John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles Bonehead Play of the Game.) If it hadn't been for A.O.'s heroics in the third period, the trio would have been a combined -6 instead of a +3 as they were on the ice for 5 of the six goals scored in the game. In the first and second periods, they looked like they had never skated on a line together as there was zero chemistry from them.

Well gang, this is one of those wins where you come away feeling not so good about it. The Caps got away with one tonight as Deslauriers turned in a fantastic performance against a Caps team that was looking forward to getting home. We didn't go to the net much tonight and as the game wore on, it was obvious to us that Deslauriers didn't like having players camped out in front of the crease and crashing it when the puck arrived. But the travel now eases up as five of the next seven games are at home and we don't play another set of back-to-back games until the Tampa-Florida pairing January 12th-13th. So hopefully the Caps can take the momentum generated by the third period tonight and string a few more wins together as four of the next five games are against teams in that are currently with us in the top ten in the league.

Tonight the Caps finish off their four game road trip when they head into Edmonton to face the Oilers for the only time this season. The Oilers are playing about as well as many expected this season by not at all threatening for a playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Oilers however started December with a five game winning streak but have lost their last two games. The most recent loss being a 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Nashville Predators at home on Thursday night. This is the third game of a four game homestand for the Oilers.

Maybe the reason the Caps have so much trouble in Western Canada is because they don't travel there very often? The Caps still haven't won in Vancouver since 2001 and we haven't claimed victory in Edmonton since February 7th, 1996. While that was almost 14 years ago now, the Caps losing streak in Edmonton is only seven games. The Caps haven't visited the Alberta Provincial Capital since October 28th, 2006 when then Head Coach Glen Hanlon made the curious decision to pull the goaltender down 3-0 late in the third period and the Caps ended up losing 4-0. In addition to history working against the Caps; is the travel and back-to-back game nights, not to mention picking up an hour time wise in the process. Yet, Edmonton isn't a very good hockey team. The Caps score more goals, allow fewer, and have better Special Teams. And for all the yelling and screaming about crummy ice in D.C., we'll get a rare chance to see the Caps play on what is considered the best sheet of ice in the entire NHL. No bouncing pucks, no ruts in the ice to blow edges, just a fast clean sheet of ice. The other drawback/good news is that this will be the Caps last appearance in Hockey Night in Canada during the regular season. The Caps are 1-3 so far this season on the CBC signature telecast with the only win coming at home on opening night the three losses have all come on the road. As a matter of fact, the Caps have yet to claim a win in the Great White North this season. However, we can't get past the fact that the Oilers are one of the worst teams in the Western Conference. If the Caps aren't looking past them, they should be able to get the win tonight because things are starting to fall apart for Edmonton. Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin along with forwards Mike Comrie, Ales Hemsky, and Fernando Pisani are all on injured reserve and won't be playing tonight. That leaves Dustin Penner all by himself and he shouldn't be enough to beat the Caps.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 6
Oilers 2
Winner by Semin(18-17 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Canucks 12-18-2009 Post-Mortem

Too much home cooking??? Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

It can be tough to praise the defense when you lose a game but the Caps allowed only 20 shots on goal and kept the Sedin twins in check. As a matter of fact, we think the Caps did a better job of mucking things up than the Canucks and the Canucks thrive on mucking things up.

Captain Chris Clark with another goal tonight. That's three points in his last two games while skating on the fourth line. The Caps need production out of him but out of the third and fourth lines in general in order to win games.

Alexander "Slappy" Semin with the Caps other goal tonight and was the most dangerous forward for the Caps tonight. He had some tough luck on the penalty shot as it seemed like the puck stuck on him not once but twice as he went in for the shot.

THE BAD:

As good as Kyle Wilson was on Tuesday night, he was practically invisible tonight even when he did play. He's been credited with only 10 shifts and 8:08 of ice time tonight; the lowest of anybody on the team. We didn't hear that he got hurt so we assume it was a benching for poor play.

The Power Play was 0 for 4 tonight and got progressively worse as the game wore on. They got only one shot on goal and on the final Power Play, were defending more than they were attacking. And in case you were wondering, Vancouver is ranked 20th in the league on the Penalty Kill.

THE UGLY:

More poor officiating tonight from referees from referees Mike Leggo and Brad Meier. First of all, we agree that Slappy should not have been awarded a penalty shot but why in the world was Tom Poti hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty? The NHL "crackdown" on players complaining on the way to the penalty box is the second most ignored rule behind offensive interference/moving picks. Furthermore, after reading the Tim Donaghy excerpts we think the theme that the refs chose for tonight's game was "trip A.O. night." We counted three instances where he was tripped when in possession of the puck but no penalty call was ever made. Finally further proof that the refs had no clue as to what was going on out on the ice was the near goal they allowed at the start of the second period. If you watch the replay, the referee starts to signal that a Vancouver goal had been scored before he realized that the Caps net was off its moorings.

Well folks, for a 3-2 loss, we really can't complain too much. First of all, we expected it would be tough to beat Roberto Luongo and it was. Both goals were off of the rush and Vancouver simply didn't allow many rushes tonight. The Caps weren't taken too out of their rhythm by playing a grinding game and really dominated the territorially, keeping Vancouver bottled up for great lengths of time. We're torn about Nicklas Backstrom missing the net on his first shift because when the Caps score on their first shot very early in the game, the results have been less than pleasing. So while it might have been nice to get out to an early lead, it hasn't really benefited us well in the past. Overall, we liked the effort that the Caps put out tonight and really can't blame Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore for any of the goals he allowed tonight. Sometimes things like this will happen where you play a good game but come up short, especially when you're playing a good team in their barn. We're interested to see how the team rebounds tomorrow night in Edmonton to cap off the road trip.

Tonight the Caps start a back-to-back set of games in Western Canada when they face the Vancouver Canucks for the first and only time this season. There has been some thought that Vancouver might be the best team in the Western Conference, if they could only stay healthy which explains their current 10th place standing. The Canucks are starting to get their players worked back into the lineup and have been playing better recently with five wins in their last eight games. However in their last outing on Wednesday night, the Anaheim Ducks snapped Vancouver's 8 game home winning streak with a 3-2 victory.

First of all, we're not at all surprised by the NHL's decision to only fine David Koci, it has long been open season on Washington Capitals players and we've told you many times that the NHL's disciplinary measures are arbitrary and capricious. But getting back to tonight's game, we don't get to see him very often but we're very mindful of how glad we were that the Florida Panthers traded goaltender Roberto Luongo to Vancouver. Instead of having to face him six times a year, the Caps only have to face him once, maybe twice a year. Luongo has been a nightmare for the Caps ever since he came into the league and is the closest thing the NHL has in terms of Kryptonite for A.O., posting a 9-1 record in games against the Caps since A.O. came into the league while allowing only four goals on 54 shots from A.O. The Caps as a team haven't won in Vancouver since February 14th, 2001. We're not too concerned about Vancouver's 6-1 record against the East, Colorado was 7-2 against the East before facing the Caps on Tuesday night but Vancouver is a more mature and older team. While there may be a buzz in town because the Caps have arrived, the Canucks seem more concerned about getting themselves together than trying to prove themselves against one of the elite teams in the league and they're very tough to beat at home. We figure this will be a slow, grind it out, low scoring affair. The Caps have shown that they can play this type of game and still win, but they're much more likely to lose playing that way.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 2
Canucks 3
Winner by Rypien(17-17 on the season with one perfect game)

Thursday, December 17, 2009

The More Things Change...

Sometimes all you can say about the Ashburn Circus is "WOW!" Because while the Ashburn Circus is many things, it is never dull, boring, or fails to entertain.

So the show today kicks off in the morning with the "resignation" of Executive Vice President in Charge of Football Operations and Dan Snyder's Personal Lackey; Vinny Cerrato. Our initial reaction to the news was "so what?" Cerrato was only Snyder's lackey/mouthpiece/fall guy. It was somewhat expected that his job might be in jeopardy when the season ended, so his "resignation" today only comes as a shock because we're not officially in the off season yet. There are still three football games left to play in the Redskins string. But we felt that the bottom line was, it didn't matter who occupied Cerrato's position, unless they were Joe Gibbs, they were going to be forced to do the bidding of Synder.

But as the typical airing of the dirty laundry started coming out, we began to think that maybe, just maybe Cerrato was more in charge of the Redskins than we've been led to believe over the past few years. The (Com)Post had stories of amazing pettiness on the part of Cerrato. While Snyder was wrong to berate Norv Turner in front of the team as he did you could understand the "rookie mistake" from Snyder and by all accounts, he hasn't done it again. But for a "football guy" like Cerrato to pull that stunt is just utterly inexcusable. He knows better.

But the hits didn't stop with the "resignation" of Cerrato or the quick airing of the dirty laundry. Nope, just a mere two hours after "accepting Cerrato's resignation" the Redskins announced that Bruce Allen was taking over a Vice President of Football Operations and General Manager. (Alright, fess up, who had him in the pool???) That's right, be still your beating heart, the Redskins now have a designated General Manager for the first time since Charlie Casserly was "resigned" from the position in 1999. And Allen isn't no greenhorn to the position. He's the son of George Allen, yes that George Allen. He was the General Manager in Oakland so he already knows how to deal and coexist with a maniac owner. And because he was most recently the General Manager in Tampa, the John Gruden rumors are out in full force again. But if you weren't dropping your jaw yet, in giving his seal of approval to the hire, former Redskins General Manager Bobby Beathard said that Snyder had asked him to come back to Washington. Yep, Snyder really is interested in "putting the band back together." But as Beathard also pointed out, Allen's success will depend on how much freedom he has. Snyder has said that Allen is in charge so we'll have to see.

And make no mistake folks, we think this is good move not only because of Cerrato's own toxic behavior but because as we astutely pointed out on Sunday, nobody should be fooled by the recently improved play of the team. While the Redskins are playing hard, at best you can call them 3-3 during that span which is what has passed as the norm around here for some time. Zorn is probably still gone at the end of this season as there is no way you can hire a GM and not let him choose his Head Coach. That is a recipe for disaster but is Snyder finally learning? Has he finally realized that if somebody did a job for him as badly as he was doing it himself, he would have fired them? Go ahead, call us a Snyder Apologist again but the fact that he's willing to hire somebody and publicly state that they are in control is huge. If the Redskins turn things around in a couple of seasons (it won't be anytime soon folks) Allen will get the full credit for engineering it and all Snyder will get is kudos for staying out of the way. That's a huge blow to Snyder's ego.

But what has us the most interested in this whole sordid affair is the utter and complete cluelessness of the media in all of this. While many thought that Cerrato might possibly be let go or "reassigned" within the organization once the season was over, NOBODY had any clue that Bruce Allen would be his successor. As a matter of fact, once Cerrato's "resignation" was announced, all eyes and speculation focused squarely on Mike Holmgren. CW was, since the Cleveland Browns seemed to be moving quickly on hiring Holmgren, Snyder was countering by clearing the deck for Holmgren to come to Washington. That couldn't have been further from the truth since the NFL confirmed that the Redskins were in full compliance with the Rooney Tokenism Rule ten days ago. That's right, one day after Sean Suisham gacked against the Saints and eight days after Cerrato went berserk on the team bus in Philly, the Redskins were going through the required motions of conducting minority interviews to make the NFL feel better about itself. And while all of that was going on, nobody in the media was none the wiser and reported on it. To give you an idea on how today's performance blindsided people, not even the coaching staff knew in advance.

So the question becomes folks, can we really trust the media now when they tell us what their sources say is going on inside of the Redskins Front Office? We're not saying that the media is just making stuff up a la Jason Blair, but the fact that nobody got the drop on this advance is stunning to us. This is the kind of secrecy that Caps General Manager George McPhee is well known for. He should be insanely jealous of what the Redskins pulled off today. And mind you, the Redskins in the past have not been known for doing things in a low-key, under the radar manner. They usually have all the subtletly of a Heavy Armor Division advancing in a jungle.

But moving forward now for the Redskins, we have to take a wait and see attitude. While Snyder may be "hands off" now, will he show the necessary patience for Allen to build him a consistent winner? What scares the dickens out of us is the prospect of an uncapped season next year. Heaven only knows what Snyder may do with that but if he allows Allen to use the opportunity to clean house on the roster and start anew, the hope and optimism that has come out of today will be well placed. However, if Snyder reverts to form and goes nuts signing every free agent he can then it will be more of the same of an 8-8 football team that is teetering on the edge of disaster and semi-respectability all at the same time.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Caps @ Avalanche 12-15-2009 Wrap Up

First of all folks, we dozed off during the first intermission and awoke to a 4-0 lead in the second period which was nice and why there wasn't a Post-Mortem. But for all the hemming and hawing over "is A.O. a dirty player," look at what David Koci went out and did last night. That is the mark of a dirty player and when you see A.O. doing stuff like that, let us know. And BTW, that was not a well officiated game last night either. We couldn't figure out what the standard was for making a call and are somewhat surprised that Koci got ejected for his hit on Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green. That could have been the reason why Koci went and ran Green the way he did because Brad Watson and Gord Dwyer hadn't bothered to call anything on the Avalanche before that hit occurred. Unmentioned in any of the stories from last night but very important, is that four of the six Caps goals came from players on the third and fourth lines. Colorado though played like a very young team facing their first real test against a quality opponent. We think they would like to have this game back.

Tonight the Caps start the first of two Western road trips this month when they go a mile high to face the Colorado Avalanche for the only time this season. Picked by many to be a non-factor this season as they looked to rebuild, the Avalanche have surprised many by leading the Northwest Division and are just two points behind the Caps in the overall NHL standings. The Avalanche are led by Paul Stasny and Wojtek Wolski who have 34 and 33 points respectively with Wolski scoring 13 goals in the process. The Avs have won their last two games and four of their last five including a 3-2 win at home over the Calgary Flames on Sunday night to reclaim first place in the Northwest Division.

Somewhat lost is the euphoria of the Michael "Meadowlark" Nylander departure is that the Caps have a pretty big game tonight against a tough hockey team, in a building the Caps haven't visited in over three years, and haven't had much success in when they do play there. In their last five games, the Avalanche have not given up more than two goals in a game which seems to be their baseline for success this season running up a 13-1 record when they allow two or less goals. So it will be imperative for the Caps tonight with the league's best offense to score early and often on Colorado. The best chances for the Caps will come on the Power Play as Colorado has a run of the mill Penalty Killing unit that is ranked 16th overall but 25th on home ice killing just 77.2% of their penalties. As a matter of fact, Colorado's special teams are anything but as the Power Play is 18th overall and 25th on home ice. It would also be nice if the Caps can avoid giving up a shorthanded goal which they've done in each of their last two games, dropping moving them into a tie for second in the league overall for most shorthanded goals allowed. And before we forget, tonight is the homecoming of Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore who will return to face his old team for the first time since signing a two year contract with the Caps last season. Theodore wasn't too popular in those parts when he played there and last year he gave up four goals at the Phone Booth last year in a 4-1 loss in the only matchup between the two teams. The Avs are going for some cheap pop tonight by honoring Mike Keane before the game in and effort to get people to show up and cheer because the Caps clearly aren't much of a draw on the road and have nobody on their roster than anybody wants to see. Finally, the recall of Karl "Malden" Alzner will make tonight's blueline pairings interesting to see and Kyle Wilson should make his NHL debut in place of "Mighty Mouse" Mathieu Perreault who was demoted to Hershey yesterday as if there wasn't enough intrigue in the first place.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Sunday Smorgasbord

The Sunday Smorgasbord returns with the odd note from Corey Masiak yesterday about how bad the Caps have been outside of the Southeast Division. First of all, when Detroit was fattening their record on a weak Central Division, hardly anybody called them on the carpet as they were always considered one of the elite hockey teams in spite of it. And mind you, last year was the first time since the lockout that the Central Division sent more than just Detroit and Nashville into the playoffs. The Blues, Blue Jackets, and Blackhawks were hardly considered stellar opponents. We've heard many times before "beat the teams you should beat, go least .500 against everybody else, and you'll be surprised as to how well you do." While there are too many hockey games to do exactly that, we look at the Caps 3-4 record against the next ten teams behind us in the standings and feel rather comfortable. Furthermore 3 of those four losses have come at the hands of the New Jersey Devils. Our game against Colorado on Tuesday will be a better measuring stick for where this team is than another second game in a row on the road on Saturday night in Toronto is. Finally, while a team may be at the bottom of the standings, that does not mean they aren't currently playing well or are a bad team. Corey conveniently leaves out the 8-2 pasting of the Philadelphia Flyers last week in his example.

Well, give the Natinals credit, they're trying to give fans a reason to come to the ballpark to watch them lose another 100 games with the signing of Ivan Rodriguez earlier this week. Maybe we're being too hard on the poor Natinals. But the idea that Pudge is going to lead this team into playoffs in two-three years is laughable at best. Yes, the Natinals could use a player who knows how to win in the clubhouse. But with Jim Riggleman as the manager, the Natinals won't be challenging for a playoff spot in the National League. We give Mike Rizzo credit, he's doing his best to restock a depleted minor league system and overcome the damage created by the Jim Bowden era. But his work is cut out for him and it will be at least five years in our opinion before the Natinals are any good.

Ok folks, we'll admit it. We were wondering just how the Redskins were going to blow it this week when they opened up a 10 point lead on Oakland early in the fourth quarter today. For all the accolades given to the defense, we wonder just how good it really is when it has shown an inability to keep the other team off the scoreboard when the chips are down. Today though, the Raiders were totally inept once Bruce Gradkowski was knocked out and the offense kept on putting up Bingo after Bingo in the fourth quarter. There's no doubt that the Redskins have been playing better and harder since halftime of of the Falcons game. But even counting the second half against Atlanta, which they "won" 14-7, the Redskins are 3-3, which is about what we expect of this team. We've felt that the Redskins at their core are an 8-8 team. Should they stay healthy and catch a few breaks, they could win up to 12 games and a playoff game or two but never be a serious threat to win the Super Bowl. Should the Redskins suffer key injuries and have some bad breaks, they could easily lose 12 games and be out it by Thanksgiving. Finally, don't be fooled by what you've seen the past few weeks, while the absence of Clinton Portis is a good thing, Redskins still need a complete overhaul from top to bottom of the roster if they want to break this cycle.

Well folks, it wouldn't be a Sunday Smorgasbord without a "Diversify or Die" moment, and we dug this one up over the summer about an idea our Wonderful, Gracious, and Peace Loving Dear Leader hadto boost our economy. May we suggest trying this with Pittsburgh? It's not like anybody actually lives there anyway...

And speaking of ugly messes, what is Debbie Yow doing in College Park? Less than year after getting her you-know-what handed to her after trying to run Gary Williams out on a rail, she tries the exact same thing with Ralph Friedgen with the exact same results. First of all, Ralph is a victim of his own success. Too many people look at him coming in 2001 and winning an ACC Title right away and thought he could put the Terps consistently on the national scene. The problem is, now that everybody takes him seriously, he can't sneak up on anybody anymore. Furthermore, when the Administration, and we don't mean Debbie Yow, refuses to provide any support to the program, this is what you get. It is foolish to think that by avoiding questionable recruits, either academically, socially, or both, along with playing entirely by the NCAA's arcane rules that you'll be able to consistently contender for National Titles. If the school isn't going to cut these kids a break or two or three then they cannot expect the coaches to produce the National Championships people actually care about. And this goes for Gary Williams too who we think is once again on the hot seat because despite coming off a Second Round NCAA Tournament Appearance, the Athletic Department was selling Men's Basketball Season Tickets to the General Public for the first time in who knows how long. We guarantee you that if the Terps start to slide on the bubble this year, that fact will be used against Gary and with the deaths of Jack Heise and Bob Novak, Gary is missing a couple of heavy hitters who helped him out last year.

And uh, just in case you were wondering, we're not touching this Tiger Woods story with a ten foot pole...

This week, the Caps head out west with a game on Tuesday night in Colorado at 9:30 pm. They then head to Vancouver for a Friday game at 10:00 pm and then play their last Hockey Night in Canada regular season game on Saturday night in Edmonton at 10:00 pm again. Terp Men are off for exams but the Terp Women come back from them next Sunday when they head to Bender Arena to play American at 2 pm. The Redskins play their second and final Monday night home game next week against the Jints.

Out of Cap Jail

The immediate effect of this is likely to disappoint many as well. After all, bringing up Karl "Malden" Alzner will only increase the log jam on the blueline that has forced Tyler Sloan into skating as a forward in order to get into a game. And during his time with the Penguin Scum, Chris Bourque showed he's not ready to be a full time NHL player. We don't see how minor league call-ups at this point can make the Caps any better.

What we believe this does do for the Caps is two-fold; first of all it gives us the flexibility to make a move to add salary at the trade deadline later this year. Another rental like Sergei (#3) Fedorov or Esa Tikkanen. Secondly without digging into the minutiae of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Caps now have the ability to get Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander "Slappy" Semin signed to contract extensions well before July 1st.

As for Meadowlark, we wish him well. It just didn't work out for his second tour of duty and now he actually gets to earn his salary by riding the buses for Grand Rapids of the AHL. It couldn't have been easy for him to sit as long as he did and to his credit, he didn't make waves and disrupt the team either last year or this year. Maybe he'll now be able to convince a KHL team he actually wants to play for to pick him up. But the bottom line is, he's gone for good and by agreeing to play out at least this year in the AHL, he helps the Caps become a better a team.

We would welcome a first round matchup with the Thug Leafs if they can find away to make it into the playoffs. Because for starters, there are no gimmicks in the playoffs and we wouldn't be playing them on the same schedule as them. No third game in four nights in the third different city while they've had the night before off at home.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Caps @ Maple Thug Leafs 12-12-2009 Post-Mortem

Well, that stunk... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

A.O. with a three point effort, one goal and two assists. He now has 37 points on the season and is now 17 points away from tying St. Calle Johansson for 7th on the Caps All-Time Scoring List with 474.

Alexander "Slappy" Semin may have registered only a single assist tonight, but he was the only Cap to finish with a plus rating tonight.

THE BAD:

Blowing a 2-0 lead on the road.

While the Power Play went 1 for 3, it once again gave up a shorthanded goal.

The Penalty Killers were 2 for 4 tonight and a big fat Thank You to Craig Laughlin for mentioning that the Caps had not given up a 5 on 3 goal this season, until tonight.

THE UGLY:

While Slappy misfired on a number of chances himself, Brendan Morrrissonn missed a wide open net that could have really put this game away early. This is the third prime chance he's blown in the past three games.

Many Caps fans love to beat up on Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore for not playing well, but tonight they got a good look at a goaltender not playing well as Michal "Bebe" Neuvirth laid a total egg tonight. Absolutely no big saves and a few goals he just should not have given up while allowing six on 36 shots.

Well folks, we kind of saw this coming. We knew that the Caps wouldn't have enough energy to get through a 60 minute game and as the night wore on, you could see the Caps energy level dropping. Had they scored the third goal of the game to take a 3-0 lead, maybe tonight would have turned out differently but probably not considering the goaltending we got after getting a 2-0 lead. And lets give Vesa Toskala credit, after getting burned early, he got into a serious groove and kept his team from falling further behind by coming up with glove save after glove save. We were wondering when the Caps would stop shooting at that glove. The good news for the Caps is that while they are out on the road all of next week the schedule eases up as they have just five games in the next 15 days. They should get plenty of rest to get their legs back under them.

Tonight the Caps head out on a four game road trip that will take them out west for the first time this season when they make a stop in Toronto to face the Thug Leafs. This is the second matchup between the two teams with the home team winning both of the previous two games. The Thugs Leafs have been mired at the bottom of the standings all year but have won four of their last six games. Toronto has also won their last two home games but dropped a 5-2 decision in Boston to the Bruins on Thursday night in their last game.

So once again the schedule makers put the Caps in Toronto on Hockey Night in Canada after playing a game at home the night before while the Thug Leafs were resting. The last time this happened, the Caps and Thug Leafs authored a thoroughly boring 2-1 gimmick win for the Thug Leafs. The Thug Leafs have improved slightly in the defensive category, Carolina has given up one more goal than they have, but are still struggling to keep teams off the scoreboard. So if the Caps can score more than two goals they should be able to win. But after a somewhat lifeless performance last night and playing their third game in four nights, will the Caps have the necessary jump? Will the expected starting goaltender tonight, Michal "Bebe" Neuvirth, answer the call in the glare of the Canadian Media Capital? His numbers in the AHL have been good but he didn't fare well in his only NHL start this season, picking up the loss in a 3-2 game against Montreal at the Phone Booth a month ago. We can't say we like where this is heading right now.